


Sake And Silk

by Jesse



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Reader has a pet Raven named Schnitzel, Reader is from Poland FYI, Who wouldn't want to read that?, idk man, there are bits of Polish writing in here
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-11
Updated: 2018-01-24
Packaged: 2018-12-14 00:50:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11772021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jesse/pseuds/Jesse
Summary: You are one of Overwatch's newest members, specializing in stealth, toxins, and also having a really cool raven companion. You're not sure what to expect, but you do know that you feel like a giant idiot for almost killing someone on your first day (completely accidental, I swear). You apologise to him for it, and can't help but notice that even though he's coarse and somewhat antisocial, Hanzo Shimada is starting to trip your proverbial feet.





	1. Apologies never go out of style

**Author's Note:**

> This is my own work, written specifically for a friend with her in mind, but being published for anyone to enjoy. 
> 
> Officially, the reader as I've written her is a cisgender female.  
> She uses she/her pronouns and does not question her gender identity.

His hands pressed firmly on the table, dark eyes glinting at me in the dim light of the meeting room. “How can you perform like this and still think that you have a right to be here?”

I tried to swallow several times, each one failing worst than the last. “It was a mistake, s-”

“People DIED because of your mistake!!” Morrison looked almost in physical pain as he said it, which made it worse. “Innocent civilians paid the price of your mistake with their lives.” A film of dirt coated his forehead, the rest of his face clean, having been protected with his visor and mask.

Standing up straight, he handed the stack of files to me, each one marked with a name. “These are for you. Take them. Read them. Learn about what simple mistakes do.

“I expect those back tomorrow evening,” he continued, walking for the door, “now get out.”

Scooping up the data pads in my arms, I trotted to the door, purposely not looking at him.

“And if these mistakes happen again,” he uttered as I walked past him, “I’ll be seeing you out the gates of this base.”

He slammed the door behind me.

 

* * *

 

**_~Some time before~_ **

 

“This is it, Schnitzel,” I murmured, reaching two fingers up to my shoulder. The perching raven croaked happily in response, tapping his beak against my fingertips. The entrance to Watchpoint Gibraltar was large and slightly terrifying, and I still sort of wanted the option to turn right on my heel and catch the next flight home. The smell of the Alboran sea was kind of nice, and I knew that Schnitzel would probably like it here before I would. There wasn’t any turning back now.

A girl ran outside the door, obviously heading my way, and appeared in front of me faster than I could blink. I took a half step backwards, startled.

“Sorry ‘bout scarin’ ya!” Her laugh was cute, and she didn’t give me any bad vibes. “I’m Lena Oxton, but you might know me as Tracer!”

“I think we talked on the line once,” I nodded, “I’ve seen your posters, too.”

She seemed almost embarrassed. “Dunno why those are still floating about, honestly. And you’re _____, yeah?”

I nodded. “That’s me, and this is Schnitzel.” I jerked my thumb up to the bird on my shoulder, who indignantly tried to peck at my invading digit before I wisely moved it away from his reach.

“We did chat once, yeah!” Lena began walking back towards the base, and I took a moment to be envious of her sweatpants and comfortable hoodie. “You need help carrying your stuff?”

Setting down one of my heavy suitcases, I nodded. “That one’s just clothes, you can carry it.” I hefted the locked case under my arm, squishing it between my upper arm and rib cage as I picked up the other suitcase. Schnitzel made a loud squawk, probably wanting to stay outside.

“You got a cage or something for him?”

Lena had probably meant it with genuine curiosity, but it just seemed to anger me. “He doesn’t belong in a cage,” I said as tactfully as I could manage, “because he’s not a pet. He’s my companion, and he’s incredibly well-trained. A cage would only harm him.”

She cracked a grin, switching the suitcase to her other hand, “Nothin’ to worry about! As long as he’s not takin’ a crap everywhere, no one will mind him.”

Another ignorant comment, but I swallowed it. “As long as I have a room with a window, he’ll be fine.”

Lena blew her bangs from her forehead, climbing the front steps. “All rooms got windows, love. No need to worry about that!” She set my luggage in the short hallway, motioning for me to follow her. I followed suit, only keeping Schnitzel with me, and I followed her through the base.

It was poorly lit and kind of cold, but I didn’t mind all that much. The dark never bothered Schnitzel, and the chilliness probably just reminded him of home. I still wanted to be back there; Spain wasn’t all that far from home, but it felt like I could have been in another dimension for how far I felt.

“Woo, okay,” Lena whistled, stopping in front of a closed door, “Just pop in there and talk to Jack; he’ll brief you for a few minutes and then-” She began rummaging in the pockets of her sweatpants, “Then you can- aha!!- find your room from there.” Lena deposited a key into my hand, which had 4B stamped into the metal. “Call me if you need me!!”

And just like that, she was gone.

I wish I could do that.

Sucking up my anxiety, I knocked twice on the door. Almost immediately did the raspy voice of Commander Morrison reach my ears, one that was all too familiar. We’d talked several times; it was good to hear him again.

I opened the door, letting myself in. Morrison was sitting at his desk, sitting up straight like he was someone extremely important, and he waved me over. “Good to finally meet you, _____,” he greeted me, shaking my hand before I sat down in one of the chairs opposite his desk.

“It’s an honor to meet you as well, sir.” Schnitzel bobbed his head like it was a formality, and it seemed to amuse Morrison slightly.

“So here’s how it works, kid,” Morrison started, resting his elbows on the desk, “Overwatch’s recall is still fairly recent. We’re doing some odd recruiting just to see what we can make stick around here. We’ve got some of our core here back, and a few others from back in its heyday. Others, like you, we’ve found from different parts of the globe but that we feel can be an asset to our team.” He leaned back in the chair, rubbing his chin. “I want you to work closely with Ana Amari; she specializes with biotech weaponry and I think she could help you find a decent alternative to straight-up poison. It ain’t right.”

I wasn’t too pleased with that, but I figured we could reach a middle ground somewhere. “Will do.”

“No one else around here with animals,” Jack commented a moment later, glancing at my bird, “But we do have some psychopath from Australia that talks to bombs like they’re his children. Might wanna keep a close eye on your pet, especially if he likes to pick up stray objects.”

Schnitzel totally loved to steal things. I’d have to watch out for that.

“And finally,” Morrison added as he stood up, “We’ll be having a few more people get here before the end of the week. Once we get the initial group established, we will start holding weekly briefings. These cannot be missed and there’s no excuse to miss them anyway.”

“Understood.” I rose to my feet as well, taking this as the end of our short meeting. Jack shook my hand, gave me a communicator with no instruction on how to use it, showed me to the door, and closed it behind me. Schnitzel nipped at my ear and got mad when I flicked him gently. “Głupek,” I chided gently, walking back down the hallway to where I’d left my bags. Only problem now was that I had my key and had no idea where the rooms even were. The base was rather large for being situated on top of an ocean rock, and I didn’t know where anything was at all.

“No pięknie,” I muttered under my breath, glancing around to hopefully spot Tracer again. No luck. I began picking up my things, shaking my shoulder to get Schnitzel to hop off. “Shoo,” I told him, feeling a bit better once he hopped down to the floor. “Hej!” He croaked.

“Hej, Schnitzel,” I responded, trying to hold all of my stuff at once. He could have an almond later.

Only a few minutes more of trying to carry all of my luggage had me leaving it at the door instead. It could stay there until I found where the rooms were. Schnitzel hopped around my feet as I walked along, occasionally pecking at the ground, most likely looking for a snack. We walked past a smaller building to the left, which looked like it was used for storage. However, just past that building was a magnificent view of the ocean. It wouldn’t hurt to take a look. I fairly trotted over to the edge of the cliff, immediately taking a seat and letting my legs dangle over the edge. Schnitzel pecked at a rock, got upset, and took off into flight, soaring over the ocean, but not out of my sights. “Lucky bird,” I said half to myself, “Wish I could fly, only back home.”  I picked up a small rock, tossing it carelessly over the side of the cliff. I peered down after it a second later, taking note that way down below, there was a small sandy strip between the cliff and the water. That would have been fine, were it not for the fact that two individuals were standing way down there, with the rock heading towards them. They seemed to be arguing, which didn’t matter, since one of them could be dead in a minute.

“LOOK OUT!!” I yelled as loudly as I could, leaning over as far as possible without risk of me falling to my doom. Both individuals looked up immediately, and they both took several respective steps backward in almost the same motion. One of the persons was dressed in some strange metal suit, and the other was wearing some sort of Japanese cosplay with metal legs. I would have thought more about their odd getup, but then I had to remind myself that I was literally wearing a giant, fluffy collar made of raven feathers. I had no place to judge anyone’s outfits.

They didn’t seem all that pissed off by their possible brush with death, and almost instantly resumed their heated words after the rock landed.

Great, just great. I haven’t even been here for half an hour and I’ve almost killed two people.

“Are they arguing again?” A voice behind me startled me for a second, and I turned around to behold someone that I never would have thought to ever meet in my entire life, especially not here at Overwatch HQ.

“You.. you’re Hana Song..?” I tried to pass it off coolly, but made it sound like a deranged fan who was about to pass out in her presence.

“Yup, that’s me! Gamer by night, Overwatch member by day - unless they decide to do stuff here at night, then I gotta change my stream schedule.” She peered over the cliff after sitting down next to me, almost looking amused by the two down there. “Ugh, he’s been at Genji’s throat ever since he got here two days ago.”

I tried to recover from the knowledge that I was sitting next to a video game idol. “Which one is which?”

Hana pointed down at the one wearing the metal suit. “That’s Genji; he used to be a part of Overwatch back in the day, I think. And that one there-” she pointed to the other one, who was now turning away from Genji, “That’s his brother, Hanzo. Apparently he’s mad at Genji for something. Not my business, though.” She cracked a gum bubble, tapping her heels against the cliffside. “Still, it’s been kind of amusing to watch; that old guy’s got some punch in his own mouth. Plus it’s fun to watch Zenyatta try to pacify things and things just get worse. I don’t think Hanzo likes him.”

I wasn’t even going to ask.

“Anyway!” She looked over at me, flashing me a million-dollar smile. “It’s not fair that you know my name, but I don’t know yours!”

“Oh, I’m _____,” I said hastily, reaching out my arm for Schnitzel, who returned as if on cue, “And this is my raven, Schnitzel.”

She seemed completely flabbergasted at the fact that I had a raven. “He’s so cute!!” Hana gushed, “And I love his name! Is it okay to pet him?!”

“Sure,” I chuckled, “He loves the attention. Just let him rub his beak on your fingers first."

Hana did as I instructed, giggling as Schnitzel began pushing his entire face into her hand. “One of my friends back home has a lot of rare and exotic birds, but I’ve never seen a raven up close like this before!”

It made me feel kinda good to be able to show Hana Song something that she thought was cool. All I ever did in regards to her was remain glued to my computer when she streamed Monster Hunter for a week. I loved old games.

After making idle chatter for a few minutes, we both stood up to leave the cliffside. “Hey, do you think you could show me where the rooms that we stay in are at? Lena didn’t exactly tell me.”

She made a raspberry sound and snorted, “ LOL, she did the same to me when I got here. Where’s your stuff? I can show you.”

I was glad for her help, since she carried one of my suitcases, and also since the barracks (she called them that) were almost on the opposite side of the base altogether. It would make for a pain in the ass if we had early morning meetings; I didn’t feel like hauling ass five thousand miles across the base at five in the morning.

Room 4B was at the end of the underground barracks hallway, which was across from the communal showers and a functional but small kitchen. There was a larger lounge-type area that I saw, which was probably where people might hang out. I’d probably have to show face at some point.

My room had its own adjoining bathroom, but it had only a sink, toilet, and bathtub - no shower. Baths were good for soaking, not cleaning.

Looks like I’d have to invest in some shower sandals.

The first thing I unpacked was the large plastic bag that held the Rokpol box, the only one Schnitzel would sleep in. I hated the damn thing; I swear that he only liked it because it smelled bad. He lived to torment me. I lined the cheese box with his ratty blanket, and set it on the floor somewhat near my bed but not too close. He made weird sounds in his sleep sometimes.

I barely had time to unpack anything else before Lena showed up at my door, knocking a thousand times before I opened it. “Good, you found your way here, hope you’re getting all fitted in!”

“Trying to,” I replied, making sure Schnitzel wouldn’t try to worm his way around my ankles and escape.

“Supper’s on in about ten minutes, in the northeast building. Wouldn’t want to miss out on that, would ya?”

I had to admit, I was hungry. Moving makes anyone’s appetite increase, and I wasn’t any different. Schnitzel was probably hungry too, but he’d have to stay here like he did at home and I’d bring him my leftovers. I told Lena that I’d be there, and she was gone just as the words left my mouth. With barely enough time to change my clothes, I headed off to the building she directed, while leaving behind a very loud and irate bird.

Luckily for me, Hana had saved me a seat in the cafeteria-style room, sitting at a table with a few other people, only one which I knew at the moment. She introduced me to Lúcio and Zenyatta, and I waved hello to Lena as I sat down. I’d heard vaguely about Lúcio before, something about him being a famous musician, but it wasn’t my style of music, so I’d never pursued it. Still, it felt cool to be sitting at a table full of celebrities and some weird floating Omnic. I didn’t know why he was even here; Omnics couldn’t eat.

Dinner was beef stew, yeast rolls or wheat bread, and brownies. I made sure to save some of the veggies from the stew in a cup for Schnitzel, along with half of a roll.

After my initial awkwardness around Zenyatta, it was nice to find that he was an Omnic who could make jokes. He seemed friendly enough, and I chanced to ask him how he came to be at Overwatch, since it didn’t seem like a place where an Omnic would want to be.

“I came here with my student, and I was allowed to remain here on the grounds so that we might continue our lessons.” Zenyatta’s voice was smooth and gentle, and I couldn’t help but enjoy his humming of words. “If Overwatch seeks use of my abilities, I would be happy to lend them.”

“Your student?”

He gave a little nod of his head, which looked more like a bob. “He is over there - Genji.”

The guy in the metal suit. The guy I almost murdered probably.

As Genji got himself a cup of tea, he headed over to our table to join Zenyatta. Fate would have him be sitting directly across from me, which enabled me to slowly realise that he wasn’t wearing a suit of armor; he was some sort of cybernetic being.

“Ah, you are the girl who tried to throw rocks at my brother and I?”

No zajebiście.

I waved both hands at him frantically, trying to explain myself before the metal plate in front of his face slid out of view, revealing eyes that were almost near-closed with laughter. It wasn’t all that reassuring, thanks to anxiety, but at least he wasn’t angry.

“My brother was mad about it,” Genji scoffed, jerking a thumb behind him in the direction of the man that Hana had referred to as Hanzo. He almost seemed to know that Genji was talking about him, seeing as how his eyes snapped over in the direction of our table. His gaze locked with mine a moment later, recognising me as the idiot who had dropped rocks, and I’d never seen a more irritated face in my life. Schnitzel would have competition now.

“But not to worry,” Genji continued, “We would have noticed your little rock even before it would have gotten close. We already knew you were up there.”

Still not all that reassuring. I apologised to Genji, who tried to convince me that it had been an accident and that an apology was not necessary.

“I’m sure your brother feels differently,” I muttered, scraping the bowl with my spoon.

“Oh, he probably does,” Genji hummed, sticking a straw into the depths of his closed helmet from the face window, “I would probably apologise to him for it, if I were you. He’s very paranoid about such things. But if it were me, I wouldn’t say anything. He’s just a grumpy old man.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” I looked around for Hanzo again, but he seemed to be missing from the room. Being too tired to care at the moment, I deposited my dishes in the kitchen and scooped up the leftovers for Schnitzel.

“I’m going to turn in for the night,” I said to Hana, “It’s been a long day.”

“Oh, for sure, _____!” She replied cheerfully, “We’ll be meeting back here at 9 am for breakfast, you shouldn’t miss out! And then we’re going to be doing some exercises with Lúcio afterwards; he’s a pro!!”

Lúcio looked like he was trying not to laugh.

“I’ll see about it,” I said sleepily, giving them a tired wave of my fingertips as I left the mess hall.

The base was poorly lit outside at night, but I didn’t need to be outside for all that long. I remembered the way to get back to the barracks. As much as I wanted to take a shower, I didn’t want to do so until I had some sort of sandals to wear in the showers. I’d have to do without for tonight.

As I stood in front of my door, fumbling in my pockets for my key, I slowly became aware of someone watching me. I turned around, only to see Hanzo standing there.

“You would do well to watch where you drop stones,” he said coldly, not looking at all amused.

“It was an accident,” I frowned, closing my fingers around the key, “But I do offer my apologies.”

Hanzo lowered his head, as if he were nodding, but it was a single motion. He said nothing else, only turning on his heel and walking into the room behind him, almost directly opposite the door to my own room. His room was 2A. I’d have to remember to keep Schnitzel away from it.

Speaking of the devil, the raven was more than delighted to see me once I showed him that I had food for him. He scarfed down the soft veggies like I’d never fed him a day in his life. After I changed into comfortable sleeping clothes, I tossed the half roll into his bed, watching him hop in after it. I tucked his blanket around him, shut off the room light, and crawled into bed. Even Schnitzel’s loud gobbling noises wouldn’t keep me from instantly passing out.

* * *

 

Thank you to [Anna](http://starcallerrandgrid.tumblr.com) for the lovely art; she is the reason this fic exists.

 


	2. Criticism sucks most of the time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Good things - you can't rush into them."
> 
> \- José Andrés

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey I'm back from the absolute fucking _grave_.

True to Hana’s word, Lúcio was indeed some sort of unearthly wizard when it came to working out. The guy had us running laps around the entire watchpoint, followed with horrible regimens of stuff like pushups and situps, all of which I hated. To be fair, I hated them because I was not in good shape, and if I wanted to be honest with myself, I probably needed the workout. Didn’t make me enjoy it any more than I did though, which was exactly not at all. I stuck to it anyway, knowing that I did need to do it, and because it would only help in the long run.

Because of this, I ended up making use of the tub inside my personal bathroom. After our morning workout, I would get a cold shower, and then sit in the hot bath for about twenty minutes, or however long it took for my poor, screaming muscles to not feel like they were drenched with acid. My body hated me, and it was all my fault. Unfortunately, no amounts of berating my past self that allowed me to get into this state seemed to help. I wished that I could just cue some cringy 1980’s synth music workout montage and be instantly fit, but things weren’t that cool.

Out of all of us here at Gibraltar from that point, only Hana, Genji, Lena, and myself would participate in the morning workout. Zenyatta never did because it didn’t really make any sense for him to do so, and Morrison would probably run laps around our laps and act like a drill sergeant. Winston sometimes came by to watch and observe, but he never joined. There were a few other people here as well, like the two guys from Australia, but I only saw them during meals, and they kept to themselves. Hanzo only showed up for meals when he felt like it, and I’d hardly see him anywhere else. Probably for the best.

It was only a few days after I showed up did we get another small influx of people, most of which were already known by the core Overwatch team. There was a big German man with the largest suit of armor I’d ever seen, a guy with ridiculous American cowboy clothes, a much smaller man who insisted on having his old barracks because he still had machinery in there, and a very pretty lady from Switzerland.

In a way, it was kind of cool to be here to witness old members of Overwatch reunite with each other, all of them seeming to be great friends with each other, already swapping personal jokes and stories like they’d never even really been apart. A small piece of me hoped that I could be such a member of the team, but then I remembered that I literally vomited on my first day of working out due to exhaustion.

The morning of the first briefing meeting was horrible. It was scheduled for six in the morning, which would have been fine, if it weren’t for the fact that Schnitzel had somehow covertly opened every drawer in the dresser and had scattered my clothes all around the room while I had been sleeping. Opening the bathroom door revealed my favourite bra in the toilet. “Ty mała latająca mendo!!” I screamed at him, chasing him around the room until I managed to get him stuffed into the carry-along infant seat, which he absolutely hated. I couldn’t leave him here; messes only made him want to make things even more messy. Thus, I had little choice but to quickly change out of my pajamas and take the little scumbag with me.

No one really seemed to pay me any mind when I walked in, which meant that I wasn’t late. It also meant that no one thought it was weird that I was carrying a chubby bird in an over-the-arm carrier that was meant for a human infant. Hana was quick to slip me a comb, which I tried to run through my hair as discreetly as I could. Everyone else looked like they’d been up for awhile, and had taken time to change clothes, brush hair and teeth, and make themselves look perfect. I probably looked like I’d just rolled out of bed, which was mostly true anyway. Hana didn’t mind taking Schnitzel in his carrier, petting him like he deserved lavish attention. Głupek.

It took every ounce of power within me to not start nodding off during the meeting. Morrison kept going on about Vishkar developments, which wasn’t really boring, but the Vishkar had never concerned our country. For one, they hadn’t expressed any real interest in occupying our land, and the few times that they had tried to send some of their people in, I’m pretty sure our people had scared them back out. Poland had never given a single fuck about anything.

He started talking about Talon, and while I felt like I should probably know what that was, I couldn’t find it within myself to care all that much at this ungodly hour. All I knew was that they were some sort of organization, pretty covert. I wished I had a cup of tea to keep me piqued for the moment. Or pączki.

Morrison finished the meeting by telling us that we were getting a Vishkar recruit into Overwatch within the next week or so, and would be escorted in by Ana Amari and her daughter. Everyone seemed to know who they were, and I only knew of Ana because Morrison told me that I’d be working with her. Looks like I still had time to kill before she would show up and ruin my work. Next week we were supposed to be getting assignments for potential roles within the team. I wasn’t sure what we’d be doing exactly, but it felt kind of exciting to finally being able to be doing something with Overwatch; that was the reason I was here.

* * *

 

Breakfast felt like lunch to me, grumbling about having woken up too early and dealing with corvid bullshit. I felt as if I’d been awake for hours, and the prospect of cleaning my room didn’t seem like anything I was interested in doing at the moment. I silently yelled at myself for just leaving my bra in the toilet instead of hanging it over the edge of the tub to dry. Hana and Lúcio chattered happily as I sat there with Schnitzel in my lap, feeding him small pieces of my wheat toast and bits of scrambled egg. I wasn’t the biggest fan of eggs, so Schnitzel was more than welcome to eat them.

“I did not know that you owned a raven,” a voice commented gently. I looked up to see Genji sitting across from me, uncapping a protein drink.

“Who, this guy?” I snorted, dangling a pinch of toast above Schnitzel’s beak, watching him snap his chops furiously until I let him have it, “Yeah, he’s my companion. Probably the best friend I’ve got.”

“He’s very beautiful,” Genji praised, shoving a straw into the bottle and stuffing the other end into his mask, “We do not see such birds in Japan.”

I silently adored the compliment, almost making me forget to still be mad at Schnitzel. “They’re not native to Poland either. Pretty sure he’s one of very few.”

“Mhmm.” He sipped at his drink for a moment, and then turned back to look at me, where I noticed the faint glimmer of amber eyes beyond the dark reaches of his helmet. “How did you acquire him, then? I am curious as to how you might obtain such a lovely but uncommon bird.”

Gently petting the top of Schnitzel’s head with my finger, I continued to keep eye contact with Genji. “He belonged to the owner of an art shop I visited once. She kept him crammed in an awful cage that was way too small for him. He was missing feathers and looked sick, but I think she kept him around for the exotic factor.” Schnitzel’s beak pressed into my palm and I rubbed it gently. “Instead of buying pencils that day, I bought a bird and a small cage.”

Genji seemed to be intently listening. “Did he like you right away?”

I smiled a little bit. “The first thing I did when we got outside was I let him out of the cage and I crushed it with my foot. He perched on my shoulder the entire time and didn’t want to leave. So I took him home and gave him some food and a box to sleep in. He hasn’t seemed interested in leaving, so he sticks around.”

“That is wonderful,” Genji mused, “It’s a very nice thing you did. Everyone deserves a second chance like that.”

“He seems happy,” I shrugged, finally letting him out of the carrier and allowing him to hop onto the table, “He’s even learned some commands and will occasionally yell at me. But I love him.”

Schnitzel hopped over to Genji, pecking at his metal-cased fingers before fairly running up his arm and sitting on his shoulder. It threw me for a loop initially; Schnitzel wasn’t usually so receptive to strangers. But just watching Genji gently interact and play with the raven made me not worry too much about it; it was really cute to see.

The sudden sense of openness I felt with Genji prompted me to want to ask about his strange cyber-suit, but I kept the words in my mouth. It could be saved for another time. Lúcio was reaching across the table to pet Schnitzel, who was still sitting on Genji’s shoulder. The feathery idiot seemed to love all of the attention, and I’d have to make sure that he didn’t get too spoiled from it.

It did help when I had to do stuff around the base, though. Schnitzel hated being cooped up in our room, and since I couldn’t always keep an eye on him, Hana, Lúcio, and now Genji were always more than willing to keep tabs on him. I was grateful for that, especially this afternoon, since I could finally go and practice with my bow now that the targets had been set up. Most everyone around here used guns, and they had their own shooting range, but having outdoor targets for someone like me who used arrows found it a bit more useful in the long run. Besides, I didn’t feel like having my ears blown off.

The custom recurve felt good to be in my hands again, my fingers lovingly running along the smooth edges, touching the carved feathered ends. It was a tribute to Schnitzel, really. There was very little that I loved more than this weapon. My quiver rested leisurely along my backside, giving me easy access to fresh arrows. After buckling my glove, I nocked the first arrow, feeling that wonderful burn in my arms as I slowly drew back the string. As per old habit, I held the draw for a few seconds, savoring the ache before I let it fly. Almost instantly did the arrow bury itself into the target, only a couple of inches away from the center. I wasn’t the best at using a bow, but to be fair, I hadn’t been using it to murder people. Archery was a hobby to me, but I figured that since Overwatch wasn’t exactly paving the way with non-violence, I might was well brush up my skills as much as I could. I’d designed the bow myself and everything, and had made it so that it combined my aesthetic with usefulness. Everything about it was completely sound, but all I’d ever really done with it was hit makeshift targets in my backyard and not much else. Still, I wasn’t a novice, either. I had at least something going for me.

Nocking the second arrow, I held the string back for an extra few seconds, burning my arm a bit more than the last time, knowing that I’d have to get used to that as well. The arrow was farther from the center than the first one had been. It was kinda sad.

.. hopefully no one was watching. I glanced around side to side, and then checked behind me. I could feel my heart roll into my gut, and then sink painfully downwards into my toes as I saw Hanzo standing there, his own bow in one hand, and casually examining the fingernails of his other hand. Clearly he was not impressed.

To be fair, I wouldn’t have been, either.

“Wybacz,” I muttered, taking a slightly-exaggerated step away from my place in front of the target, “You could have let me know that you were here, you know.”

He chuckled under his breath, and I’m glad that I didn’t have to hear it. “I thought I’d observe for a moment, which, regrettably, is all it took to assess your skill.”

Feeling slightly hurt, I rolled my eyes in response. “Well it’s a good thing they didn’t hire me for archery. I’m just out here to practice. Recreation. Hobby. That sort of thing.”

This seemed to appease him, probably relieved that he didn’t run the risk of getting shot by some Polish idiot when he was trying to focus on being a better archer than me, probably. Hanzo stood up straight from his previous position of leaning against the wall, and decided to walk over to where I stood, invading my personal space without even asking. He stood there for a moment, and for a brief second, I thought he was looking me up and down and I was about to snap at him for it. Turns out he was just looking at my bow.

The corner of his mouth twitched, like he wanted to say something in particular, and then decided not to. “May I see your weapon?” He finally asked, still staring at it.

“Only if I can see yours.” It was only fair.

He agreed to this exchange, and we both traded.

His bow was incredibly heavy in my hands, and I silently noted that perhaps one of the reasons that his arms were so well-built was because he was always carrying this thing around. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get a better look at them, since he hadn’t worn his usual Japanese clothing, and was wearing a track jacket instead. It looked weird with his more formal, traditional facial hair and whatnot.

I turned my attention back to his bow to avoid staring him down, which he’d probably noticed. Tightening my fingers around the grip of the bow, I pulled the string back in a mock draw, trying to not let my facial expression strain with the massive resistance it gave me. I was able to get it back to almost a full draw, but my poor arms were paying a mighty price for it. Very slowly, and very carefully, I eased the bowstring back into its normal position and glanced over at Hanzo, hoping that he wasn’t thinking that I was mistreating his weapon.

Hanzo, on the other hand, seemed rather preoccupied with the detailing of my own bow. I watched as his fingers gently ran across the delicate carvings of the feathers, probably testing their own firmness. “It’s carbon, and they’re weighted,” I said aloud, “They won’t break easily.”

“Hmm?” He glanced up from the bow, his gaze touching mine for a moment before he shook his head. “No, no. I was admiring the detail. It’s clear that you’ve put a lot of personality into your weapon.” He handed it back to me, not looking displeased.

“Thank you,” I mumbled, handing his back to him with both hands before taking my own, “It took me several months to finish it.”

This caused him to look at the bow again, and then back at me. “You made it yourself?” he asked slowly, as if he didn’t quite believe it.

“Sure did,” I answered, feeling a bit more confident now, “I wanted a bow with more of my bird’s personality in it, really. I designed it with him in mind.”

Hanzo nodded, which made me subtly pleased that he was listening to me. “It shows. It’s a beautiful weapon, and it’s also functional.”

I grinned a little bit. “I wanted to get some use out of it, not just for decoration. I mean, it mostly just sat around at my house for long periods of time between uses, but I make sure to give it some love every now and again.”

His hands gently tightening around his own bow, probably out of a sense of protectiveness. I watched as his fingers idly pressed around the stabilizer, rubbing its smooth edges. “Mine is not as.. personal as yours. It was created for its true purpose, and not much else.”

“It’s heavy,” I commented, nodding my head at it.

“Yes.” That was his only answer for a moment, but he seemed to be trying to form a secondary response the entire time. I decided to let it drop.

Regrettably, the entire moment of peace we had between us seemed to drop with it, and that awkward Hanzo-induced tension seemed to build back up. He didn’t look too comfortable either. For some reason, that made me feel a little bit better. “Well.. why don’t you show me how you use it, then?” I asked him, shifting my weight from one leg to the other, “Does it handle differently than a bow with lighter weight?”

He blinked, coming out of his mild odd trance. “Not for me it doesn’t. I’ve grown accustomed to weighted bows; using anything lighter doesn’t feel well to me.” He pulled an arrow from the quiver he had slung behind one arm, nocking it without even looking at it, and drawing it back with such ease that I was instantly jealous. Hanzo only took less than a second to glance at the target, and I watched as his stance shifted ever so subtly as he re-positioned himself. He let the arrow fly, and I watched with even more envy as it buried itself deep in the dead center of the target. What’s worse is that Hanzo didn’t even seem proud of himself; it looked like he expected that end result, probably because it was child’s play to him. I slowly began to realise that this was probably why he was here at Overwatch. And here I was, playing with toys in comparison to him.

It was kinda cool.

But it also sucked.

He walked away to retrieve his arrow, and I watched sullenly as he plucked both of mine out as well. Walking back over to me, Hanzo held out his hand, arrows proffered. I picked them up quickly, trying not to drag my fingertips all over his palm, and offered him my thanks.

Nodding in response, Hanzo turned on his heel and began walking off to who knows where. I offered a small wave with my fingertips, still in mild shock that we just had an actual conversation like normal people and he hadn’t tried to bite my head off, unlike our last encounter. Maybe he wasn’t too terrible.

Chewing on the inside of my left cheek, I nocked one of the returned arrows for good measure, drawing it back with familiar ease. I exhaled slowly as I aimed down at the target, my gloved fingers gripping the arrow tightly as I waited for the right moment to fire.

“Your elbow. Raise it.”

Blinking, I glanced up where the voice came from, noting Hanzo standing off to the side, watching. My expression must have been quizzical at best, because he pointed to my left arm, the one holding the shot. “Raise your elbow, perhaps nine millimeters. You are allowing your shots to drop.”

Normally I didn’t like criticism on anything I was up to, but in this case, I appreciated it. My skills were self-taught, and rudimentary at best. Hanzo knew what he was talking about. I did as he instructed, feeling more of a strain in the muscles under my arm, but I held the draw for a few seconds, taking the time to aim at the target once again, and I let go.

It wasn’t a magical moment where the arrow hit the center of the target after receiving some sage advice, because it didn’t. However, it was closer to the center than my first two shots had been, and it had hit the target with much greater force than I’d ever fired an arrow before. Half-smile on my face, I turned over to thank Hanzo, but he was nowhere to be seen.

So he was just going to give me advice and then leave before watching me put it into action? Rude. Rolling my eyes, I nocked the other arrow again, still following his advice, and fired. And fired a third arrow. Emptied my quiver. Refilled it, and emptied it again. I didn’t stop until I could no longer draw the string back in full, my arms aching like they never had before, and my calves were cramping from having stood in a single stance for several hours.

I retrieved all of my arrows, gingerly reaching behind me to slip them into my quiver, and fairly waddled on stiff legs back to the main area of the base. Schnitzel managed to find me before I was even halfway there, landing on my shoulder and immediately nipping mercilessly at my left ear. “Hej!!” he squawked, flapping his wings several times just to piss me off.

“Zamknij ryj,” I reprimanded him, reaching a finger towards him. He bit harmlessly at it for a second or two, and then pushed his head under it for me to pet him. Spoiled brat. “We’re going to supper soon. No treats.”

He didn’t seem pleased with this, but I didn’t care. Last thing I needed was a fat bird.

I didn’t have enough time for a soak before dinner, so I wound up a couple ibuprofen for my aching muscles and decided to just deal with it for the time being. I wouldn’t be as grumpy about my sore arms and legs if I had at least shown SOME signs of improvement, but I really hadn’t. It was frustrating to keep repeating the same action over and over and having nothing really come of it. At least if you drew the same thing repeatedly, you would become better at drawing it after awhile, but archery was apparently different. I probably just had to build up the appropriate muscle, and doing that was going to suck. I wasn’t even here for archery. What was I going to do, ruin myself for a hobby? And probably have Hanzo lecture me about it? No thanks. I appreciated his pointer, but I also wasn’t here to fire arrows off into the sunset.

At least supper wasn’t terrible, but I caught myself inwardly whining a little bit about the repeated courses of American food. I missed my mother’s cooking from back home. What I wouldn’t give for some goulash right now. I lazily played with the pulled pork with my plastic fork, chasing it around the steamed corn that occupied its own small section of the plate. Hana asked me if I was okay, and I replied with a painful “ughhhh” and slightly nodded at my upper arms.

“Oh yeah, you were practicing archery today, I forgot.” She neatly tucked some of the pork into her bread roll and took a bite, wiping her face with the back of her hand after. “Schnitzel did a good job of standing on top of my mech while I gave it a good cleaning.”

“I’m sure he did,” I mumbled, glancing around the room while she chattered. It was a lot more noisy in here than usual, most likely due to the guy they called Reinhardt having a laugh that could probably be heard from my parents’ house all the way back in Warsaw, as well as the rest of the original Overwatch team members all at their own table and looking like they were swapping old stories with each other or something.

It seemed like fun.

My eyes continued to run along the tables, accidentally settling on Hanzo, who was rarely ever in here at mealtime, but there he was, sitting across from Genji. One of Genji’s hands was moving around, as if he was speaking and using his hands to help him do so, so I could only assume they were having some sort of conversation, since Genji’s back was towards me. I felt a mild heart attack as Hanzo’s eyes flicked over and met mine, staring at me from under gently creased eyebrows. Quickly, I turned my attention back to my plate, now even less hungry than I had been before.

Slowly, I began to tune back in to what Hana was talking about, and she ended up turning to me before she was done speaking. “.. - and the Amari’s should be here by Saturday with the Vishkar recruit is what I’ve been hearing. Looks like you’ll finally be getting to do something besides archery, _____!!”

Managing a lopsided smile, I dropped my fork onto my plate, slowly sitting up straight and stretching my aching arms above my head. “Hopefully it’ll be something interesting; I just pray that Ana Amari isn’t here to ruin my work.”

* * *

 

 

Again, thanks to Anna for the art!!

 

**Author's Note:**

> I've created a social hub on Discord for Overwatch writers!! You are free to stop in to get help with your writing, find beta readers or translators, and meet your fellow Overwatch writer peers in the process!! Click this link to join: <https://discord.gg/v84yV9R>


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